Chapter XX
Participation of Students in the Teaching
Development
JØRGEN ERIK CHRISTENSEN1 and KIRSTEN RIBU2
1,2
Faculty of Engineering, Oslo University College, NO-0130 OSLO,
NORWAY. E-mail: Jorgen-Erik.Christensen@iu.hio.no
One of the challenges in modern engineering education is the demand for lectures of
high quality, where the subject is presented in an interesting and engaging way. By
integrating the students into the teaching process, time for preparation can be
reduced with up to 75%. Lectures can be made more effective and interesting by
using a combination of Power Point presentations, the blackboard, exercises, posing
questions to the students, and student presentations. Using Power Point
presentations to create on-line learning material can compensate for the lack of
suitable textbooks in certain engineering disciplines.
INTRODUCTION
The traditional standard format for lectures is a 40 minutes teacher monologue. Research
has shown that this kind of teaching has a number of weaknesses, and there is need for
supplement to the lecture in the form of student activities [1] [4] [5]. Human beings are
not able to keep up attention for more than around 15 minutes before concentration falls
dramatically [1]. For this reason, it is necessary to vary the lecture activities. The
inspiration for this paper is based on the authors’ teaching experience on both bachelor
and master level, and the ideas of J. Biggs, described in “Enriching large-class teaching”
[1].
Another reason for writing this paper are that the knowledge of engineering
pedagogic at the teaching institution for engineers in Norway and Denmark are not so
well developed, since it is not a demand for teaching personal to take a Foundation
Course in Education for College Lecturers. At the moment there are a discussion in the
media in Denmark about one has to set it up as a requirement that teachers at higher
institutions has to take a course in pedagogic or have guidance in order to fulfil the lack
of knowledge in this area. The tradition in Norway and Denmark at the Universities and
University Colleges that focus for personal career has been on research and publications
only. The consequences of this are that the focus on pedagogic had a very low priority.
This is slowly changing in Norway and Denmark and in the last 5 years, the knowledge
of the importance of this field has increased, but there is still a long way to go.
This paper describes the project “Pedagogical Methods and Principles at the
Department of Building, Chemistry, Energy and Environment, 2005” [2]. Elements from
this project have been used in a follow-up project, exploring a concept for teaching
software tools. This project is described in the paper [3].
MOTIVATION
Today, instruction is no longer based on the sole use of the blackboard, but increasingly
on electronic learning environments. Fulfilling the demands from the modern student is a
challenge for instructors. Lectures should be engaging, even entertaining. While there is
an increasing demand for high quality teaching, it is a paradox that the time for
preparation is steadily reduced. Creating high quality electronic teaching material,
coordinating different sources of information, is time-consuming work. Therefore,
teachers should find ways to make the preparation more efficient in order to avoid
working a great deal over-time. A solution is to integrate the students in the process of
creating teaching material, and presenting it in class.
1. The lecture
The lecture form is used excessively at the Faculty of Engineering, and classes are often
large, the numbers of students ranging from around 20 to 500 on different courses. This
poses several challenges for the instructors, because teaching a large class poses different
problems than teaching small groups.
Many teachers have developed a perspective on their field of expertise, something
textbooks normally have not. In addition, textbooks are soon out of date, partly through
publication lag, whereas teachers and researchers are not [1]. Therefore, the role of the
teacher is to transform knowledge.
The lectures can be varied by using a combination of electronic learning material,
for instance Power Point presentations, the blackboard, task assignments and posing
questions to the students, thus creating a dialogue between lecturer and students.
2. Student participation
Introducing a new textbook or subject means that a teacher must spend time creating
appropriate teaching material. Modern teachers should always be updated on their
subject, and be able to conduct a variety of courses. They must also be prepared to teach
subjects they are not experts in. This means constantly acquiring new knowledge, and
preparing appropriate teaching material. New teachers create most of the subject material
from scratch. When preparing a new subject, it can therefore be a great help to hire a
student to create the basic Power Point slides from the chapters in selected textbooks.
OUTLINE OF THE PROJECT
The project started in January 2005 and will continue until June 2007. The project
receives funding for this period.
The project aims to:
 Develop a complete teaching system to increase the educational level of the
teaching activity in order to give the students a better understanding of the
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lectures. This system are based on the following tasks: a strategy for each
teaching hour, pedagogic PowerPoint, exercises including good solutions,
practical laboratory work, integration of mathematics, student participation, etc.
Involve students in the process of creating Power Point slides for all the lectures,
with handouts. The aim is to improve the quality of the teaching material.
Develop a colour code system for the creation of Power Point slides to aid the
students in their work with the slides.
Develop a standard Power Point template, in order to make the exchange and
development of slides easy.
Publish all material in Fronter, in order secure the information for students who
do not participate in the lectures.
Creating tutorials for the tool learning created ‘on the fly’ by using the template.
Project participants are teachers from the department of Energy and Environment,
Building and Computer Science.
Students were hired to write the Power Point presentations using the specific
template. When students write all the formulas and the basic text, time for teacher
preparation is reduced with up to 75%, leaving the teacher more time for creating high
quality teaching materiel. It can take up to three courses running (three years) to perfect
the creation of advanced course material, but by using this method, the time spent can be
reduced dramatically
Our experience in Norway and Denmark are that not many teachers at University
Colleges manage to create complete teaching material including suitable electronic notes
from the lectures, exercises including good solutions, practical laboratory work,
integration of mathematics, etc.
One example of the need of supplementary PowerPoint slides to the textbooks is the
lack of units in examples, which make it difficult to follow the principles in the solutions.
By taking the same example with other numbers and stressing the units and including
figures of interest, which illustrates how to find the right numbers, it is possible to create
a solution model the most student understand. It is important to write parts of the example
on the black board in order to slow down the presentation and change of focus from the
slides. In addition, the student comments concerning the understanding of the PowerPoint
have to be included right after the lectures before published in Fronter.
CREATING THE INSTRUCTION MATERIAL
In order to create high-quality instruction material for handouts, we recommend the
following approach:
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Use a standard power Point template
Mark the text with different colours (colour code system)
Transform the code into text
Review text
Correct draft, and add supplements
Jorgen Christensen has developed a code system for marking the different parts of
the selected text as headlines, bullet points, normal text and notes using different colours,
see figure 1. Selected chapters in one or more textbooks are marked using the colour
code, making it possible for the student to understand how the text should be transformed
into Power Point slides. A simple notation is added in order to specify capital letters, font
size and slide numbers.
FIGURE 1
EXAMPLE OF HOW THE TEXT IS MARKED USING DIFFERENT COLOURS.
Using a standard template ensures that although many people are involved in the
process of creating the slides, these will be in a uniform format. Christensen’s experience
is to use only a few codes and colours, because the students easily forget or mix up the
codes if there are too many different symbols. The system should be kept as simple as
possible.
In the example in figure 1, the codes give the following information to the students:
 Blue : Headline
 Pink: Normal text (bullet point)
 The number ‘10’: Slide number 10
 A box with the number 2: Template number 2. (A list of Power Point templates
is included).
Figure 2 shows the finished result when the text in figure 1 has been transformed
according to the code system. When the draft for the slides is ready, the teacher reviews
them, and gives the students correcting comments. The students will quickly become
familiar with the template, and are able to make high quality slides from the draft. This
process speeds up the time spent for preparation by a factor of 3 to 4. When the final draft
of the Power Point slides is completed, the teacher can add supplements, and include
material from other sources. Some readers may think that this is an extremely timeconsuming process, but our experience is that it is a very efficient way of using Power
Point presentation to create a compressed textbook. The approach makes it possible to
include updated information from scientific papers, conference articles and magazines.
When creating tutorials for the tool-learning workshop in Project 2, the use of Power
Point has certain advantages. There is limited space per slide, and the information
presented is therefore concentrated. The tutorial is created ‘on the fly’, while using and
learning the software. Both teachers and students contribute with their acquired
experience. The instruction material created in this manner is highly flexible, and can
easily be changed and updated. Using a Power Point format ensures that the most
important information is presented first, and details are postponed until a later stage.
Practical examples and solutions to exercises are incorporated and described in [3].
FIGURE 2
THE TEXT IN FIGURE 1 TRANSFORMED INTO A POWER POINT SLIDE.
1. The Power Point Format
Even with very clear written and spoken information, most of the students will not be
able to correctly follow the template, and some students simply create their own format.
One difficulty is that Power Point has many different formats and versions. This means
that one can never be sure that the student has the same version of Power Point on their
computer. For this reason, we always distribute the exact format in a file, and ask the
students to make 3-4 Power Point slides and return them, so that the slides can be
controlled to see if the format is correct. The instructor corrects the slides and returns
them with comments. Some of the students pick up the template format very quickly,
while others have difficulties understanding a clear message, and have to be corrected
several times. It normally takes two rounds checking the format, sometimes even more.
This may sound complicated and time-consuming, but in the long run it is our experience
that once the students are familiar with the format, it is possible to create new teaching
material very quickly.
In the presentations, we have also included several exercises, along with their
solutions. In this way the students receive all the information they need contained in one
file. In addition, the instructor can create a presentation with only exercises, and no
solutions. It may be argued that the solutions should not be included together with the
theory and exercises, as it is giving the students too much for free. However, this is a
practical consideration in order to limit the presentation to two files, where the exercises
are extracted from the original, complete file. Another reason is that the students wish to
have all the information collected, so that they can work on the exercises on their own.
2. A Discussion of Textbooks
For specific tasks in the area of engineering, for instance in energy and building design,
Norwegian textbooks must be used in order to teach local standards. Norway is a small
country with only 4.5 million people, and the market for technical books is limited. The
quality of these books may have difficulties in matching the standard of American books
produced for a worldwide market, and therefore, Norwegian teachers spend a lot of time
making exercises and solutions themselves.
3. Evaluation of the project
In interviews with the students who participated in the creation of the PowerPoint, the
students stated that they were more inspired and engaged in the whole course since they
were taking active part in the process. They had a better understanding of how to create
course material, which they eventually have to do themselves as engineers. They also got
good training in writing, using formula editors and setting up information in a structured
way. One of the students in a Heat Transfer class at Narvik University College stated:
“When I was writing the PowerPoint slides it was like taking notes about the main
features from the textbook in advance. I did not have to do it myself. It was an advantage
in the teaching process that I had studied the theory before the course in Heat Transfer.
In this way, I had the lectures twice – first when I wrote them, and later when I had the
actual lecture. It sharpened my concentration and gave me a better understanding of the
theory. In addition I earned money for my studies”. Another student at Oslo University
College who participated in two classes in Indoor Climate and Energy and
Environmental in buildings had similar comments.
The principles described in this paper were used in the Fluid Dynamics class. The
class was evaluated in March 2007. 15 students participated in the evaluation – ranking
the answer from very good – 5 - to very bad – 1. In general, the result shows a high level
of satisfaction. The highlights of the evaluation show the following:
 What is your general opinion of the contents of the class? 93% gave score 4 or
5.
 What is your opinion about getting copies of PowerPoint of the most important?
– 93% gave score 4 or 5.
 Does the teaching stimulate to continue work with the subject? – 47% gave
score 4 or 5, 53% average 3.
 What is your opinion about the alternation use of PowerPoint and blackboard? –
93% gave score 4 or 5.
 What is your opinion about the pedagogic value of the PowerPoint in relation to
the textbook? – 67% gave score 4 or 5, 27% average 3.
 Is it an advantage to have reference to the page number in the textbook on the
PowerPoint? – 93% gave score 4 or 5.
 How is your benefit of the exercises? – 80%% gave score 4 or 5, 20% give 3.
 What is your opinion about getting copies of the solutions to the exercises? –
100% gave score 5.
The results show a high level of satisfaction for 93% of the students, (score 4 or 5).
The results of the evaluation show that lectures can be made more effective and
interesting by using a combination of Power Point presentations, the blackboard,
exercises, posing questions to the students, and student presentations. The Power Point
presentations and the written exercises and solutions can be used to create on-line
learning material, which can compensate for the lack of suitable textbooks.
EXPERIENCE AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The teacher should give a brief repetition from last lecture at the beginning of each
lecture, and a 3-5 minutes consolidation at the end of the lecture. Alternatively, the
students can do the summing up by giving a short review to each other. Handouts of the
Power Point files are distributed to the students at the beginning of the lectures. This
ensures that all the students have access to the notes at the beginning of class. If
information is not clearly understood, the slide can be updated on the spot or right after
the lecture. When all the course material has been created, the major part of it can be
handed out at the beginning of the course.
Using PowerPoint presentations with handouts for the students gives the students
more information in a shorter time. However, it is important to avoid the lecture ending
up as a “Power Point slide show”, which will tire the students.
The presentation in the PowerPoint slides should be so excessive that the students
only have to take a limited number of notes. Taking too many notes will create “black
holes’, because while taking notes, students do not hear what is being said, and
information will be lost [1]. This can be avoided if the lecturer gives the relevant
information in the notes.
CONCLUSIONS
We have received student feedback for two different courses, Fluid Dynamics (2006,
2007) and Software Engineering (2005). We have tried two different approaches. In Fluid
Dynamics at the department of Energy and Environment, the students were given
handouts before lectures and the slides and exercises have been published in Fronter. In
Software Engineering at the Computer science department, all slides were published as
PDF files on the course web page, but no handouts were distributed.
Feedback from the students show that they are very satisfied both with the Power
Point handouts, and the electronic slides. The students who receive handouts regard them
as supplementary material, in addition to textbooks and project work. The handouts give
an overview of the course topics, but the students must attend the lectures in order to
benefit from the distributed material. 70-80% of the students take part in the lectures.
The evaluation of Fluid Dynamics in March 2007 shows a high level of satisfaction.
Interviews with the students who participated in the preparation of the PowerPoint
indicate that the best solutions for the students are the case where they are going to take
the class themselves after haven written the slides. The students were inspired, engaged,
and well prepared for the class, and had time to reflect on the theory.
The computer science students have access to all the slides electronically, and either
read them on-line, or print them out. They are used to and appreciate course material
being published on-line, which means that even if they miss lectures, they can still follow
the course.
REFERENCES
1.
J. Biggs, “Teaching for quality learning“, SRHE & Open University Press, ISBN 0-335-20171-7, 1999
2.
J. E. Christensen, “Pedagogical Methods and Principles at the Department of Building, Chemistry, Energy
and Environment”, Faculty of Engineering, Oslo University College, Oslo, Norway, 2006.
3.
J. E. Christensen, & Ribu, K., “A Concept for Flexible Teaching of Software Tools in Engineering
Education”, 9th International Conference on Engineering Education, 2006
4.
D. A. Bligh, “What’s the use of the lecture?”, Harmondsworth Penquin books, 1972.
5.
A. F. Grasha, “Teaching with style”, Pittsburgh, PA: Alliance. 1996.
Jørgen Erik Christensen received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the
Technical University of Denmark in Copenhagen in 1981 and 1987 respectively.
From 1988 to 1991, he worked at the Danish Building Research Institute,
Denmark and was in 1990 appointed to senior researcher. From 1992, he worked
as Professor of Integrated Building Technology at Narvik University College,
Norway. Since 2003, he has been an Associate Professor at Faculty of
Engineering, Oslo University College. He has been involved in national and
international research in the field of energy and environment and a co-developer
of an international used thermal analysis program – tsbi3.
Kirsten Ribu received her MSc. Degree in Informatics from the University of
Oslo, and has been employed at the Faculty of Engineering, Oslo University
College since 2003, here she is engaged in teaching at both Bachelor and Master
levels. From 2001-2002 she was employed at Simula Research Laboratory in the
Software Engineering Research Group. She also has several years experience as
a consultant in the software industry. From 1984 to 1997, she worked as a freelance artist and designer, completing a Masters degree in Art and Design from
the Oslo National Academy of Arts in 1989.